


I Hope They Never Have To

by polandspringz



Category: RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Gen, but they aren't prominent in the story so I'm not tagging all of them, note that everyone on the two teams are here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-22
Updated: 2020-10-22
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:14:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27150259
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polandspringz/pseuds/polandspringz
Summary: Team RWBY and JNR confront Ironwood one last time to come to a compromise about how to handle the impending threat of Salem, and Ironwood let's it slip what happened to Oscar.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 54





	I Hope They Never Have To

**Author's Note:**

> Tagging the characters for such a short fic feels like a mess. The central people in this story are Ruby, Ironwood, and Jaune. Writing this I actively tried to please both sides of the fandom that was torn after Volume 7, but if you a staunch-Ironwood defender, you still may not like this fic. I'm willing to discuss things in the comments though! I just ask that you be polite.

“We demand to speak with General Ironwood,” Ruby said into her scroll, staring down the Ace Operatives who were lined up a few feet away from her. Both her team and the rest of her friends and family were standing with weapons drawn, a buffer between her and Ironwood’s army. If anyone took a step forward, another battle would erupt, and there was no guarantee a bloodbath wouldn’t happen. It reminded her of when they first summoned Jinn that day in the snow, and everyone stood on guard to protect her from Ozpin and Qrow who were speaking in half-truths. It was the same now.

Ruby could see Harriet seething in place, her glare the most murderous of them all. Ruby gripped her scroll tighter. The sound waves on the screen began to dance as the voice on the other side took a deep breath and then sighed.

_“And why should I even grant you an audience?”_

“Because, we are trying to talk with you, to help you! We have the same goal, even though we have different ideas about how to achieve it. Besides, we need to apologize for some things _too._ ”

She tacked that word on at the last minute, hissing it between her teeth as she narrowed her eyes, watching the holographic screen on the far wall flicker with light and life. _Ironwood wasn’t completely innocent here either, after all._

The AceOps remained frozen even as the screen behind them began to flash, the Atlas Academy emblem fading into icey blue and then white before black. They were in complete darkness for a few moments, the glow of Ruby’s scroll blinding her as the misty light drew her eyes in and made it hard for her pupils to adjust to the darkness surrounding her. Still, she did not close the channel. Marrow made eye contact with Blake through the dark. He mouthed something to her, and she flinched, but luckily did not make enough noise to startle the AceOps into action.

She nodded, and mouthed something back at him. _It was good to know someone else was on their side, on the other side, at least._

The lights came back on, but instead of Ironwood’s hologram appearing, two doors underneath the large screen opened up with a clang, and the man himself came marching in. He stood on the balcony above where the two teams remained locked in a stalemate. Ruby looked up.

“Apologizing won’t get me to remove my warrant for your arrest,” the man stated, arms folded behind his back, “It’s too late for that now.”

“If you still want to arrest us after all this, then fine, we’ll go our own way, and take Salem down. But right now, we just want to _talk._ Are you capable of doing that, General?”

She arched an eyebrow. The man glared down at her.

“Talking and acting like an immature child to the leader of the Atlesian military is exactly what got you into this mess in the first place. If you insist on continuing this behavior, then we are done here.”

“General, wait! Please,” Yang shouted, before the man could turn away, “Listen, we’re…” she bit her tongue and struggled to suppress her anger, “We’re sorry that we betrayed your trust and told Robyn about the tower. I know you said apologizing will get us nowhere, but at least you can listen to us. Our reasons.”

She kept her fists up in a defensive position, and bowed her head, but did not submit. She glared dangers down at Elm and Vine. Weiss spoke next, “We were _all_ desperate and panicked back in your office. We promise to remain calm now, like Ruby said, we’re here to talk.”

Ironwood turned back, looking over the balcony with a neutral expression.

“You still have your weapons drawn. How am I to be sure that you won’t attack?”

“Call back your men and we will do the same,” Ruby said, meeting Ironwood’s glare again as he turned towards her voice, “Give us the assurance that you won’t have us arrested the moment we drop our weapons, and we won’t run. We came here to find _you_ after all. We’re practically turning ourselves in.”

Ironwood just continued to stare. _He’s been a general for many years,_ Ruby thought, _he must be used to negotiations and threats like this. We can’t falter here._

At last, he said, “You lower your weapons first.”

Ruby narrowed her eyes and her brow furrowed.

“I will have Weiss and Blake lower their weapons if you have Harriet and Marrow lower theirs.”

Both groups were in the back of each line of defense. The frontlines who were the closest would still be ready for anything.

Again, Ironwood said nothing, and Ruby thought about just pressing forward with her questions without complying with his request, but then the man raised his right hand, and directed, “Harriet, Marrow. Stand down.”

“But, General-!”

“Be quiet, Hare. Let’s listen to him,” Marrow said, putting Fetch back on his back. He reached an arm out and forced Harriet’s arms down. With a grumble, she rolled her shoulders back, and Fast Knuckles folded up behind her.

Weiss and Blake didn’t need to be ordered, and they both slowly lowered their weapons. Ironwood didn’t seem pleased until Weiss shoved Myrtenaster onto her belt and Blake tucked Gambol Shroud away too.

“What do you wish to discuss?”

“Our plan to hold off Salem.”

_“Our plan?”_

“ _Our_ plan. You want to launch Atlas into the sky with the staff. We want to protect the people of Mantle. The only way to achieve both of those goals is to stall Salem. But, now that she's here on her giant Grimm whale, you’re going to have difficulty getting higher into the air if she tries to follow you up there.”

“We may have stood a chance if Winter had received the Winter Maiden’s powers as intended. Where is Penny, if I may ask?” Ironwood tapped his new metallic fingers against his arm as he crossed them impatiently in front of him now. Movement was a good sign though, Ruby thought. He seemed more relaxed, more open to speak with them. As much as she didn’t want to tell him, it wouldn’t do good to get on his bad side now.

“She’s… in Mantle. She’s the protector of the people, so she’s doing her job to help keep any Grimm that are still pouring in at bay. When we are done speaking here, she is to fly back and meet with us to assist.”

“Assist with what?”

“Well,” Ruby began, tilting her head as she nervously glanced about. This wasn’t the time to be getting hesitant, but she couldn’t keep up this tough guy act very long, “If you were going to arrest us anyway, we thought we could at least offer our services to fight Salem and hold her off while you try and get things up and running.”

Ironwood was silent.

“Atlas is only her current target, but if we can hold her off long enough then you can escape with the Staff of Creation. At this point, the lesser of two evils is getting one relic to safety even if the lamp was already taken-”

“The lamp was taken?”

_Shit._

“One of Cinder’s people stole it from Oscar,” Jaune finally spoke up. He was holding his shield up in the middle line between Yang, Nora, and Ren, with Weiss, Blake, and Ruby behind him. He had planned to charge forward and slam Harriet if she tried to rush Ruby, “Neapolitan.”

“She was at the Fall of Beacon. She was working with Roman Torchwick before we knew they were connected to Cinder’s team,” Nora clarified, “Oscar had the relic last, but because he was left alone in the Academy, he was an easy target.”

“So, Salem has the lamp.”

“The lamp only has one question left, and there’s no guarantee she knows how to activate it,” Ruby reassured him, “We still have time left. If we go after her, we can stall for time, maybe even get the lamp back and then flee. All we ask, in exchange for going after Salem, you use that time we buy you to get the people of Mantle into Atlas and then-”

_“No,”_ Ironwood said.

“What?”

“No. I will not have you go fight Salem. That is a death sentence. She cannot be killed.”

“We don’t have to defeat her,” Ruby argued, taking a step forward. The AceOps flinched, but Ruby motioned for Weiss and Blake to keep their weapons down. She pushed past Jaune, moved forward through her friends as she gestured for all of them to stand down too. As she stepped into no man’s land between the two groups, she kept her scroll close to her chest, although there was no need to talk into it now that Ironwood was in the room with them.

“We just need to give you time to do what you need to do. We are huntsmen now.”

“You are _children,”_ Ironwood shouted, and pinched the bridge of his nose as he turned away slightly. He was getting a migraine, “The worst mistake of my life was giving licenses to a group of students who hadn’t even completed their first year at Beacon.”

“We signed up for Beacon because we wanted to put our lives on the line to protect the people of Remnant! We knew what we were going into, and plenty of students have died before graduation too! You know about Hazel’s sister, don’t you? What about everyone who risked their life on missions? Are you going to write off their sacrifices just because they didn’t have an official document saying they were ready to do it?”

“Pyrrha too,” Jaune said, folding his shield up and striding forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ruby, “At Beacon, she fought with Cinder even after she had gained the power of the Fall Maiden! She may have died, but she did more than you’ve ever done with your title of a huntsman!”

_“How dare you speak to me this way!_ This is _exactly_ what _I_ was talking about!” Ironwood gripped the railing of the balcony as he fumed. One arm he gestured to the side in a flurry of anger, “Don’t you understand? You are children! A real huntsman wouldn’t die at the hands of some enemy! Yes, there are risks in the field, but to die to a human? Another person who barely has more training than you like Cinder? The only reason you have failed time and time again is because you are incapable of seeing what you truly are! You are children! I may send my men into impossible battles with uneven odds, and I may seem cold, but that is because I have only gotten where I am by taking my time and calculating the possibilities, the outcomes! I may have lost men but I have never lost more than I could gain! I have never lost my head because I knew better than to send some children out into the front lines, unlike _Ozpin_ who thought that training _children_ instead of _soldiers_ was the best idea.”

Ruby pressed her lips into a thin line, “You may still have your head, but you’ve lost your heart. You don’t understand what Ozpin wanted.”

“From what Oscar told me about your discussion with Jinn, none of us understood what Ozpin wanted.”

“Speaking of Oscar,” Jaune said, “where is he? He ran off when we were being pursued by your soldiers. He said he needed to do something, and I can only think he went to find you.”

When Ironwood didn’t respond, Jaune continued, “He was on the wanted list too, wasn’t he? You would’ve wanted the relic from him, but it was stolen by the time he ran off. He’s not a huntsman, so why else would you have locked him up? He serves no threat to-”

_“I killed him.”_

Ruby’s heart stopped beating.

“...What?”

Weiss’s eyes drifted in shock to the gasps from across the room. The AceOps’ mouths were open wide too. Even Harriet looked bristled at the words, and they all craned their heads back towards the General.

“He came to me in the vault. Tried to get in my way the same way you did. I couldn’t have anyone else interfering, so I shot him.”

“But…” Ruby stuttered, “That doesn’t mean he’s dead… If you left him there, then his aura- he learned to activate-!”

“I saw his aura break the moment my bullet hit him,” Ironwood began to turn away, “Even if that didn’t kill him, the bottom of the vault leads to the bottom of Atlas. He would’ve hit the bottom of the chamber. To fall at that speed against that metal, by now he must be gone.”

“How could you do that?” Nora screamed, surging forward. Her steps were heavy as she stormed to the front, and she shrugged off Ren’s hand that attempted to grip her shoulder. He weakly caught the hilt of Magnhild, and that was enough to stop her in her tracks and prevent her from going any further, “Ozpin was in there! A part of Oscar! I thought he was your friend?! You’re that heartless that you would kill your friend without a second thought?”

“He was not my friend. Not anymore. Oscar himself said he hadn’t heard Ozpin’s voice for a long time. Who’s to say he was even in there anymore? It’s not as if he was _helping_.”

“Oscar trusted you!” Yang’s voice broke as she tightened her fists, punching the air as a stray bullet burned through the tile ground. Her eyes flashed red for a moment before Blake gently wrapped her hands around her gauntlets from behind.

“It doesn’t matter. If Ozpin really was in there, then he will reincarnate. Whatever happened to lock him away will be undone, and he’ll find us again. If he doesn’t, well he wasn’t here to guide us this far. We’ll get along fine without him.”

Jaune just stood there, frozen the moment when he realized Oscar was gone flashing through his mind.

_It was just like Pyrrha. Slipping away at the last moment, leaving him behind, went off because they had a job “only they could do.”_

And Ironwood had the audacity to stand here and not only tarnish Pyrrha’s actions, but now stand over Oscar’s corpse without even a flicker of emotion on his face.

“You talk about Salem killing children? You’re no different than her!” Jaune shouted as tears streaked down his face.

“We’re done here,” Ironwood said, “You won’t come quietly and you won’t listen like adults. I was trying to honor what I knew Ozpin would’ve wanted, and let you keep your lives, but if you insist on throwing them recklessly away, I will have to stop you. You’ll be safer in-”

_“In the basement of the vault where you threw Oscar to die?”_

Ruby’s voice was tight as she stood there shuddering, her scroll still illuminating her face, reflecting blue off the tears that poured down her face, “We’re done working with you,” she sucked in a shuddering breath, and then screamed, “ _Penny!”_

_“I’m on it!”_

_“What?!”_

Ironwood screamed out orders to the AceOps as Ruby suddenly pressed a button on her scroll, sending an outgoing message before she raised her hand towards the ceiling. All the kids drew their weapons as Harriet circled her shoulders and armed herself. She dropped herself into a lunge before she surged forward. No one moved as she closed in on Ruby, the girl herself merely lowering her head as the ceiling caved in, shutting her eyes as Penny’s swords crashed through the rubble and stabbed into the ground, stopping Harriet in her tracks.

There was the sound Ironwood had come to associate with Schnee glyphs as white snowflakes danced across the air in zigzag, a staircase climbing up as Weiss took the rest of their group. She jumped rapidly from glyph to glyph, rising up towards an airship waiting above the hole in the roof. Elm, Vine rushed forward, but before they could get further than the rubble, Marrow’s Fetch sliced in front of them and then Blake’s weapon was being thrown out and cutting across the plane. The ribbon chain circled over Harriet and Ruby’s heads stopping in front of-  
  


“Marrow, grab on!”

The AceOp grabbed ahold of the gun and let himself be tugged towards the airship, Fetch following as it circled back around up towards the roof where Marrow caught it and disappeared behind the cracked edges of the stone.

“You’re taking my men now too?!” Ironwood shouted, beginning to hurdle over the railing of the balcony. Ruby stood strong as Penny hovered above her, her swords a dancing barricade in the air and ground as she stabbed one towards anyone who moved too close.

The moonlight glittered in the sky above them, and as Ruby slowly turned her head, the white light moved in phases across her face. Lowering her arm, she tucked her scroll away, and slowly opened her eyes as she cast one last look at the four remaining Atlesian.

“You said it yourself, General. Loyalty always matters. It’s just that… you betrayed Ozpin first.”

There was the brief flurry of red as Ruby reached for her scythe, but it was swallowed up by the light as her eyes flared like the sun as they went from bright silver to burning white. In the void of burning light, there were several gunshots that grew further and further away and then a noise Ironwood recognized as Penny’s rocket thrusters, but the last thing Ironwood saw was red rose petals swirling through the fading white.

And then they were gone.

**Author's Note:**

> So this was a relatively short fic compared to what I normally write but I've had this idea for a while. I'm sort of ambivalent about the two main arguments that occurred because of Ironwood's character and Team RWBY's actions in Volume 7, so I tried to write a story where Team RWBY humbles themselves to get on Ironwood's good side, and we get a better glimpse into Ironwood's mind about why he making these actions. I actually got inspired because I'm working on a long one-shot for Oscar and Ozpin, and had to go through every line of dialogue from Ozpin during V1-3 to dissect things about him vs. Ozma talking. (Hence, why I titled this fic after Ozpin and James' discussion in V3)


End file.
